KS2 SATs 2025: maths papers analysis

The 2025 SATs maths papers didn’t hold back: 35 boxes of crisps, a rogue BIDMAS and a decimal-shaped curveball. But neither does SATs specialist Sophie Bartlett. In this blog, Sophie unpacks the arithmetic and reasoning papers, from the subtle traps in percentage problems to the crisp conundrum that could trip up even confident mathematicians.

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Well, something (or someone) was notoriously missing from this year’s papers… it certainly is a Chen-igma! (I can hear your groans from all the way over here!)

If you’re a teacher, tutor, or just someone who loves a good data dive (guilty as charged), you’re probably curious about what this year’s papers had to offer. How much does the Year 3 curriculum show up? Did we still have a whole load of fractions questions? And what’s going on with those tricksy reasoning questions that sneak up on even the sharpest pupils?

Well, kettle on and highlighters out, because we’ve pored over the papers, crunched the numbers and picked out the patterns (and a few eyebrow-raising surprises) so that you don’t have to.

The SATs 2025 maths papers facts and figures

More than half of the content in every set of maths papers so far has been drawn from the Years 3, 4 and 5 curricula. In theory, based on the pass marks of nearly all past papers, pupils could meet the expected standard with a strong grasp of content from just Years 3-5. As long as the ‘pass’ mark is below 62% (and it hasn’t been higher than 55% previously), it would still be the case that, in theory, a child could achieve EXS without knowing any Year 6 content.

This year, we saw an increase in Year 5 content, and a drop in Year 4 and Year 6 content - in fact, the proportion of questions derived from the Year 6 curriculum is amongst the lowest we’ve seen at 38% (only to be beaten by 2022’s papers at 37%). 

Historically, pupils could theoretically meet the expected standard by knowing only the content from the Calculations and FDP domains. If the pass mark remains below 59% (and, as mentioned before, it hasn’t been higher than 55% previously), it is still possible, in theory, for pupils to achieve a 'pass' relying solely on those two domains.

After quite a hefty increase last year in the number of Calculations questions, it dropped again slightly this year to 35% (although this still remains the most heavily-weighted content domain). The proportion of Measurement questions has also risen - the highest we’ve seen since 2018.

It’s important to remember that each of the nine content domains are not weighted equally. Each content domain has a varying amount of substrands, ranging from three (Position and direction and Statistics) to 12 (FDP)​. Each substrand is split into objectives across year groups - for example, F1 comprises three Year 3 objectives and one Year 4 objective. Calculations and FDP (the highest-weighted domains) have 39 and 40 objectives respectively, partly explaining their larger mark share. However, this isn’t consistent: Measurement has 44 objectives but has only received a maximum of 11% of the marks over the past five years.

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KS2 SATs 2025: GPS papers analysis

KS2 SATs 2025: reading papers analysis

Paper 1: arithmetic facts and figures

In every arithmetic paper so far, including this year’s, there has always been:

• 36 questions, 32 of which are worth 1 mark

• Two long multiplication questions, each worth 2 marks - one is 3-digits by 2-digits, one is 4-digits by 2-digits

• Two long division questions, both in the second half of the paper, each worth 2 marks - one is 3-digits by 2-digits, one is 4-digits by 2-digits

There was a pretty even spread this year across arithmetic topics. Calculating using known facts is always popular in the arithmetic paper - this year, we saw it five times, all in the first 15 questions (the questions are claimed to be presented in order of difficulty):

• ? x 233 = 0

• 84 ÷ 12

• 12 x 3 x 10

• 72 ÷ ? = 9

• 540 ÷ 6

• 2,000 ÷ 4

Papers 2 and 3: reasoning facts and figures

Last year, we anticipated that three content domains - scale factors (R3), estimating, measuring, and reading scales (M2), and volume (M8) - might feature in 2025, as they hadn’t been included for three consecutive years. However, this year, only a volume question appeared. This means that M2 and M8 still haven’t been represented since 2019.

The SATs maths papers questions

Not much to note here - arithmetic is always fairly standard!

Paper 1: arithmetic questions

Paper 1 Question 20

1,004,235 - 52,346 [1 mark]

Column subtraction is obviously a pretty standard expectation, but this particular question requires a lot of exchanging - more opportunities to make a mistake!

Paper 1 Questions 25, 27 and 32

5% of 860 [1 mark]

19% of 2,300 [1 mark]

65% of 540 [1 mark]

There are always at least two percentage questions (sometimes three), and always in the second half of the paper. You can see the complexity increase here too - the first two could be mentally calculated a little more easily than the last (the first, by dividing 860 by 20; the second, by dividing 2,300 by 5 and subtracting 23).

Paper 1 Question 31

(52 + 3) - 12 ÷ 4 [1 mark]

This is the trickiest BIDMAS we’ve seen so far - it’s been the only one to have four numbers! It was also near the end of the paper (the questions are supposedly presented in difficulty order). If some children were taking the rules of BIDMAS literally (and don’t get any mathematician worth their salt started on the ‘rules of BIDMAS’), they might have completed the brackets first (5 + 3 = 8) and then the indices (82 = 64), rather than assigning the square function to the 5. However, I guess this question is going to highlight those who have a less secure understanding of the order of operations (in the way that primary schools are supposed to teach it, anyway…)

Papers 2 and 3: reasoning questions

Paper 2 Question 14

Three lots of multiplying by different decimals, and then adding them, seemed a lot for 2 marks… but I did enjoy the layout of this question. I love a good table, me.

Paper 2 Question 15

Something about this one was so aesthetically pleasing to me; it also happened to please me in a mathematical way, too. This was my favourite question in Paper 2.

Paper 2 Question 17

A 4 kilogram bag of rice costs £6. What is the cost of 500 grams of the rice? [1 mark]

A lot to do here for 1 mark: firstly, knowing that 4kg = 4000g; then that 400g is ⅛ of 4kg; then being able to calculate £6 ÷ 8.

Paper 3 Question 3

There were 15,961 people at a football game. Round this number to the nearest hundred. [1 mark]

Rounding to the nearest 100 where the answer takes you into the next 1,000s boundary… I get it - and I know children should absolutely know how to do this - but it made me wince a little (as most rounding questions do really. Find me someone who likes teaching rounding and I’ll show you a liar with a whiteboard).

Paper 3 Questions 11 and 13

These are really testing children’s understanding of decimals and fractions. It’s a bit like the rounding one above - as if they’re saying, “Yeah, we know you can do this most of the time, but can you really do it?” We all know the children that can round to the nearest 100 as long as it doesn’t cross a 1,000s boundary; likewise, we all know children that can convert between ‘easy’ decimals and fractions, but get stumped when the complexity is stepped up a little.

Paper 3 Question 18b

Convert 35.5cm to metres. [1 mark]

To me, this is another “You think you can do this, but can you? CAN YOU?!” type question. I’m sure lots of children could convert 35cm to metres, but throwing a decimal in there (and therefore making the answer 3 decimals long, which isn’t a common answer when converting cm to m) would catch many of them out, and perhaps instead lead them into thinking it’s a m to cm conversion instead (therefore giving the answer 3,550). And yes I know that’s the point - that they should be reading the question carefully, and that they should understand the concept of converting fluently. But with the pressure, and it being a timed situation… I don’t know. Feels a bit much.

Paper 3 Question 10

I just really liked this one. Bit of table reading, bit of converting measures, bit of the four operations. Lovely jubbly.

Paper 3 Question 15a

A factory makes T-shirts and dresses. They pack them in boxes. There are 50 T-shirts in a box. How many T-shirts are there in 250 boxes? [1 mark]

As a self-proclaimed confident mathematician, the first part of this question threw me at first. I just saw the numbers (50 and 250), assumed the context of the question, and initially wrote the answer as 5 (the number of boxes needed for 250 T-shirts). It wasn’t until I read more carefully - How many T-shirts are there in 250 boxes - that I realised I needed to multiply the two together. I wonder if this question might also catch out the fluent mathematicians, purely on assumption… (and then perhaps this is one of the many issues with having a timed test!)

Paper 3 Question 17

A shop buys 35 boxes of crisps. Each box contains 48 packets of crisps. On average, the shop sells 56 packets of crisps each day. How many days will it take for all of the crisps to be sold? [3 marks]

Our only 3-marker… and it was a meaty one! Long multiplication and long division (both of which are awarded 2 marks each in the arithmetic paper, might I add).

Paper 3 Question 20

Let’s end on another of my favourites. I just thought this one was really fair, and rather satisfying actually. You could work it out visually by drawing on the diagram (splitting the other triangles into four), or mentally but working out ¼ of ¼. More like this please!

The 2025 maths SATs papers results

To achieve the expected standard in maths, the pass mark has previously been around 50% (between 49-55%); this is roughly equivalent to scoring full marks on the arithmetic (40), and around 7-8 marks on each reasoning paper​.

To achieve what is generally accepted as GDS, children have had to score between 85-87%. On Tuesday 8th July, we shall find out what this year’s mark boundaries are!

So, that’s SATs 2025 in a nutshell. Still heavy on content from earlier years, still favouring the four operations and fractions, and still managing to sneak in the odd question that makes you mutter, “Oof, that’s a bit mean for one mark.”

The takeaway’s the same as it’s always been: a solid grasp of the basics still goes a long way. We’ll keep an eye on the mark boundaries when they drop on July 8th, but for now, take a deep breath and a well-earned biscuit break!

Sophie’s SATs paper analysis is baked into LbQ SATs Springboard, a series of online assessments designed to find and fill gaps whilst reducing the pressure on year 6 teachers. As May rolls around again, the assessments are weighted to reflect the papers themselves. Get a jump-start in September by booking a free, no obligation trial.